Residents of Cauvery Nagar, Nagammal Layout, K.K.P. Layout, Marudhu Nagar, Palaniappan Layout and a few other residential colonies on Saturday staged a demonstration on Mettupalayam Road, near Saibaba Colony, asking the Coimbatore Corporation to remove encroachments on the scheme road in Jeeva Nagar.
They said that this would help the civic body widen the road.
K.K.M. Selvaraju, a resident, said that the corporation, and the Directorate of Town and Country Planning had approved the layouts recognising the scheme road and its width at 50 feet. And, since 1975 the residents of the area had been using the road to reach the Thadagam Road on the west and the Mettupalayam Road on the east.
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But since 1980s there had been steady encroachments resulting in the width of the road shrinking to less than 10 feet. Now, the civic body was constructing a drain, which would further reduce the width of the road, they said. Mr. Selvaraju said that the corporation should take steps to re-locate the 121 families that had encroached on the scheme road.
The residents gave up their protest after officials intervened. They said that if the officials did not act as promised within a reasonable time frame, they would intensify their protest.
The police said that about 100 protestors, including 36 women, were removed.
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